More bad news for taxpayers. There have been multiple media reports previously about scammers trying to gain access to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) online tool. Back in March, the IRS and the Department of Education disabled FAFSA when this suspicious activity was detected. Scammers were likely trying to hack in and gain access to the tax-return information so they could file fraudulent returns — and perhaps use the data for other identity theft scams.

On April 6th, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testified about the breach before the Senate Finance Committee. In his testimony, Commissioner Koskinen said that personal information of up to 100,000 taxpayers might have been stolen.

The IRS will be notifying all of these taxpayers about the breach even though some of the flagged FAFSA applications are legitimate ones. There’s an ongoing criminal investigation into the breach.

Just a reminder that scammers might try to use this breach for their advantage. The IRS never asks for personal and financial information in emails. Anyone getting such an email should contact the IRS ASAP using one of the contact numbers on their website to report scams and suspicious activities (irs.gov).